Philip Pilmar Now: From Federal Prosecutor to Criminal Court Judge

Philip Pilmar is a judge of the New York City Criminal Court in Kings County, appointed in 2025 after a career as a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York. His path to the bench is unusual for a reason that has nothing to do with the law: when he was ten years old, his father was murdered, and more than two decades later his mother and uncle were convicted of the killing.¹

The 1996 Murder of His Father

Howard Pilmar, a 40-year-old businessman who owned coffee shops and an office supply company, was found stabbed to death in his midtown Manhattan office on March 21, 1996. He had been stabbed dozens of times and his throat was slashed. Nothing had been taken, and investigators concluded from the start that the killing was personal.²³

Philip was ten. The case went cold almost immediately and stayed cold for more than twenty years.

His Mother and Uncle Convicted

Suspicion had long rested on Howard’s wife, Roslyn Pilmar, and her brother, Evan Wald, both of whom had visited the office the evening of the murder. Wald showed up at work the next morning with severe lacerations on his left hand and an explanation that did not hold up.²⁴ After Howard’s death, Roslyn received about $1.2 million in life insurance and took over his businesses.

In 2013, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. put a new team on the file. DNA testing matched a drop of blood from the scene to Wald, and in 2016 the family’s former nanny gave detectives new testimony about Roslyn’s behavior the night of the murder.²³ Roslyn and Wald were arrested in 2017 and indicted for second-degree murder.

A joint jury trial ended on March 8, 2019, with guilty verdicts against both. On July 8, 2019, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gilbert Hong sentenced them each to 25 years to life.⁵

At that sentencing, Philip Pilmar, by then a federal prosecutor, spoke in support of his mother and his uncle. He told the court that the woman who raised him “is not the person portrayed in court,” said he had “struggled for years” with the loss but had “come to accept things and move on,” and called Wald a “kind person.” When Justice Hong imposed the maximum sentence, Philip reportedly walked out of the courtroom.⁶

Both convictions were affirmed on appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied Wald’s petition for certiorari on December 9, 2024.⁷

Career as a Federal Prosecutor

Pilmar attended private school, then college and law school, worked at a private firm, and joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York as an Assistant United States Attorney.⁸ As an AUSA, he worked on several significant prosecutions.

He was part of the team that convicted Genaro Garcia Luna, the former Mexican Secretary of Public Security, of corrupt assistance to the Sinaloa Cartel. A jury returned its verdict in February 2023, and in October 2024 Garcia Luna was sentenced to 460 months in prison and a $2 million fine.⁹ For that work, Pilmar received the 71st Annual Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service, among 17 Eastern District employees recognized at the January 2024 ceremony.¹⁰

He is also one of the lead prosecutors in the sex trafficking and interstate prostitution case against former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries and two co-defendants, charged in a 16-count indictment unsealed in October 2024.¹¹ Jeffries was found mentally incompetent to stand trial in May 2025 because of dementia; prosecutors said in December 2025 that he had been restored to competency after treatment, with a final competency hearing expected in early 2026 and a requested trial date in October 2026.¹²

Pilmar also prosecuted Alexander Figliolia Jr. and Kenneth Sutherland, owners of Liberty Water & Sewer, charged with tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the United States by disguising more than $10 million in personal expenses as business costs.¹³

Appointment to the Criminal Court

In October 2025, Mayor Eric Adams nominated Pilmar to the Criminal Court of the City of New York. The Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary held a public hearing on his fitness for the position on October 21, 2025.¹⁴ He was confirmed and seated in Kings County, with a term running through 2028.¹

By December 2025, he was presiding over cases in Kings County Criminal Court. One of his first published decisions came on January 7, 2026, in People v. Lisa Roger, a misdemeanor assault case. He dismissed the charges after finding the prosecution had missed the 90-day speedy trial deadline. The prosecution had tried to file a statement of readiness electronically, but the clerk rejected it over a deficient affirmation of service, and the office waited nearly two months to refile. Pilmar rejected the argument that uploading documents to the court’s electronic system amounted to a valid filing, writing that the prosecution had “willfully disregarded the Clerk’s instructions to refile the document.”¹⁵

1
Scrutinize.org. Judge Philip N. Pilmar
2
CNN. NYC Cold Case Conviction
3
CBS News. Roslyn Pilmar: Words to the Nanny Become Key in NYC Murder Trial Two Decades Later
4
U.S. Supreme Court. Wald v. New York, Brief in Opposition
5
New York Post. Roslyn Pilmar, Evan Wald Get 25 Years to Life in Coffee Shop Owner Howard Pilmar’s Death
6
New York Daily News. Sister and Brother Get Life Sentences for 1996 Murder of Woman’s Wealthy Husband
7
U.S. Supreme Court. Docket: Wald v. New York, No. 24-5544
8
CBS News. Howard Pilmar: Was Murder a Family Affair?
9
U.S. Department of Justice. Ex-Mexican Secretary of Public Security Genaro Garcia Luna Sentenced to Over 38 Years
10
U.S. Department of Justice. 17 Eastern District of New York Employees and Two Former AUSAs Receive Attorney General’s Awards
11
U.S. Department of Justice. Former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch and Two Other Individuals Charged With Sex Trafficking
12
BBC News. Ex-Abercrombie Boss Mike Jeffries Fit to Stand Trial
13
NYC Department of Investigation. Thefts From City
14
NYC Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. Notice of Public Hearing
15
Findlaw. People v. Lisa Roger